Tuesday, July 5, 2011

On July 5th, 1946, the world's first bikini made its debut at a poolside fashion show in Paris. Can you imagine back then 'twas quite a risque thing? It took a while for the states to catch on to the trend. In fact, it was around the early 60's when the US, liberated by youth and rebellion tuned in to the daring behaviors across the sea. Nowadays they are a staple on the beach.

It made me start to think of those things we find out of our comfort zone. How scary is it to try something new? But how important!!

Ten years ago I couldn't imagine teaching. It wasn't on my consciousness. Then my teacher/role model for fitness and yoga told me that my practice and personality would be great addition to the yoga teaching world.

I remember it like yesterday, feeling the rush of blood come to my face. It was fear. With that scary feeling, I told her I would do it. I love doing things that freak me out because it gives me a new perspective on life and myself. When I actually started teaching, I was consistently nervous to get in front of a group of people and tell them what to do. Questions and doubt was replaced with confidence and experience. Now, teaching is like water, sleep and laughter. I can't imagine my life without it.

If I never tried something that scared me, I would have never found my truth and the love of my life.

I also jumped out of an airplane and lived over seas in a foreign land.

Although I got a great rush out of jumping out of the plane, I probably would never do it again.

The thrill of submerging myself in a new culture again, yea I'm up for another challenge.

And there is a bucket list of things I have yet to do...or wear! It keeps you young!

Living in Santa Monica for four years, I haven't been in the ocean once. When I was little, you couldn't drag me out of the sea.

Last weekend I stood where the sea met the sand and I shook like a leaf. Mostly becaues it was freekin' cold, but also, because I hadn't been in the ebb and flow of the water in so long.

Following a friend who had bigger balls than I, I breathed in deeply and dove.

I got beat to a pulp but laughed and swam and...had enough.

There is an exhilerating feeling of accomplishment and rush of joy that one feels when you accomplishing or trying something new. It feels like love. And sometimes, that thing becomes your new comfort zone. A staple in your life.

This weeks intention is to explore while you practice, the idea of trying something new. It could simply mean extending your body past what your mind thinks it can do, trusting yourself and reaching way back in your back bend. Do something that scares you. Take a risk. Dare to reach outside of your comfort zone. Try. Maybe just once. Maybe you will find you new favorite hobby or career. Maybe you'll meet your best friend or love of your life. You never know if you don't try.

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” Cecil Beaton

“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with others.” William Arthur Ward

“Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see” William Newton Clarke

“It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” Seneca

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. Eliot

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. ~Soren Kierkegaard

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. ~Pablo Picasso

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap. ~Cynthia Heimel, "Lower Manhattan Survival Tactics"

I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I'm not afraid of falling into my inkpot. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is? ~Frank Scully

Yes, risk taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking. ~Tim McMahon

The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take. ~Wayne Gretzky

A ship in harbor is safe - but that is not what ships are for. ~John A. Shedd

To eat an egg, you must break the shell. ~Jamaican Proverb

To win you have to risk loss. ~Jean-Claude Killy

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny. ~Napoleon Bonaparte

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances. ~Julia Sorel (Rosalyn Drexler), See How She Runs, 1978

Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise. ~Author Unknown

Prudence keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy. ~Samuel Johnson

The more chance there is of stubbing your toe, the more chance you have of stepping into success. ~Author Unknown

The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of the Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life. ~Robert MacIver

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. ~Robert F. Kennedy

Adventure is what happens when you just did something stupid. ~Professor Bernie

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. ~Seneca

What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? ~Robert H. Schuller

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic. Unknown

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being? ~Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

Dare to be naive. ~Buckminster Fuller

One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. ~André Gide

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. ~James Bryant Conant

Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down. ~Ray Bradbury

Friday, July 1, 2011

I love history and look at it as a point of reference when we come together on the mat and see the yoga in all of what we came from so we can arrive in the present moment and fuel our future.

As we head into the belly of the summer and the celebration of this country's 235 birthday, independence and freedom, I initially started this weeks classes with the collective intention to celebrate the freedom within the body as we focus on the structure of the postures.

I love the ability to find such freedom when safety and stability are established first in the physical body.

Much like our country. We need structure in order to find freedom. It's not always a freedom we find fair or agree with. Our country, like our bodies, sometimes rebel against us.

Freedom is a right but a feeling we still battle to maintain.

In 1776, the 13 colonies fought a revolutionary struggle to be free from Great Britain.

On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of this independence and adopted Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

I love when we have the opportunity to live history as it's happening. Lawmakers voted on Friday, June 24th to legalize same-sex marriage in NY, the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed. This gives the national gay rights movement mass momentum from the state where it all began. And, everyone knows that great trends come from NY, so it's only a matter of time before other states follow.

In order to find independence, we must come together. This is yoga.

This is freedom.

And, when I went running on the beach the other day and saw the beach clubs lining the path with all their decorations for their 4th of July celebrations, I watched our great flag wave in the breeze.

I savored the long perfect structured lines in the stripes, red and white.

I smiled at the stars bursting in all directions right next to this perfect structure.

I watched as the flag softly waved in the breeze.

I looked at that flag and felt proud that even looking at the flag that represents our country, I could see yoga.

This is my goal and mission in life - to find yoga in everything and share it with you.

When I can find yoga in everything, you can find yoga in everything and we can LIVE yoga completely on and off our mat, independently and together.

So, in exploring freedom in our classes this week, explore the lines and explore the bursts of excitement.

Use the holiday to deepen our unity - coming together to practice or barbeque.

At the same time - surrender control and stand strong in independence.

Wave your inner flag proudly and celebrate your ability to practice yoga finding the balance in our United States of Being free!

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress, working together is success. - Henry Ford

So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth. Baha'u'llah

Alone we can do so little, together, we can do so much. - Hellen Keller

You have freedom when you are easy in your harness. - Robert Frost

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better. - Albert Camus

"Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation and freedom in all just pursuits." Thomas Jefferson

“Liberty, taking the word in its concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose." Simone Weil

"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul." Moshe Dayan

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." Albert Einstein

"This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith. Lyndon B. Johnson

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." Malcom X

Nothing is more difficult and therefore more precious than to be able to decide. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. - George Washington

True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what's right. -Brigham Young

Today, you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive that is youer than you. - Dr. Seuss.

Caged birds accept each other but flight is what they long for. - Tennessee Williams

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires. - Nelson Mandela

It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. - Chuck Palahniuk

The anchor in our world today is freedom, holding us steady in times of change, a symbol of hope to all the world. - George H. W. Bush

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. - Janis Joplin

All the great things are simple and many can be expressed in a single word - freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. - Winston Churchill.

The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender. William Booth

Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become. ~unknown

All of our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling. Blaisé Pascal

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Mother Teresa

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength. –Oprah Winfrey

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance. Henry Miller

Freedom is not the right to do what we want but what we ought and let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith, let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. - Abraham Lincoln